


Dispatches From The Front

by DaisyNinjaGirl



Series: Other Peoples' Letters [2]
Category: HEYER Georgette - Works, Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer
Genre: Epistolary, F/M, Good Marriages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 20:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12802068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisyNinjaGirl/pseuds/DaisyNinjaGirl
Summary: or, Other Peoples' LettersGood love affairs take excitement and admiration; good marriages take humility and also admiration.





	Dispatches From The Front

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redsnake05](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsnake05/gifts).



> Dear Redsnake,
> 
> Your letter said you weren't particularly interested in what happened to Amanda and Neil, but once I started writing letters in Amanda's voice she started striding about trying to take over the ending of your 'real' gift story. So this small treat is an epilogue mostly for my own sake, which gives of Neil's and Amanda's married life, but also of Sir Gareth's and Lady Hester's. 
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

_From Mrs Neil Kendal to Lady Hester Ludlow, Saxe-Grünwald, 9 September 1814:_

Joseph is now the Empress Josephine following Developments.  When I told Neil that I’d thought he was just getting fat he laughed and laughed until his face got all red.  I am not a child you know.

What do I need to do for Neil to respect me, Aunt Hester?  I’ve done all the things a soldier’s wife is supposed to do.  I can slaughter my own chickens, and cook them; and clean and mend our clothes; and when we had to evacuate overnight over the Nive when the bridge washed away, I wasn’t a bit afraid.  He keeps treating me like a naughty child to be minded.

Love,

Amanda

 

_From Lady Hester Ludlow to Mrs Neil Kendal, Toulouse, 18 September 1814:_

Well, you know, Amanda, I think people do tend to form _habits_ in dealing with one another, and it is the most vexed thing, but it is _very_ hard to break out of them even when one most sincerely wants to.  You and Neil seem to spark off one another, and I suppose that he is in the habit of protecting you from your long association as children, and he is still learning to see you in a new light.  I think you both enjoy having good solid rows, and now you are working out what your peacetime looks like.

For myself, I know that I am in the habit of being meek and shy, and I very much hate being shouted at.  And do you know, I also abhor people being _kind_ to me as well, because it feels like I am being pitied.  My beloved Gareth, as you know, is so _very_ kind, of his own nature, and I am ashamed to say that there have been times that I have mistrusted myself, and mistrusted his own affection which is a dreadful thing to say about one’s own husband.  But then last month we had a row, and it was _awful_.  We stamped our feet and shouted and waved our fingers in each other’s faces – it really was bad.  (About whether Hildebrand’s Actress should be supported to come back to London, in case it signifies, which it doesn’t in the least.)  But I knew that he wasn’t giving in because he thought I needed to be wrapped in silk fluff, and he knew that I wasn’t giving in because I was afraid he would badger and pester me for months and months and there, as odd as it is to say, we knew we loved each other but now I think we know we can be _married_ together as well.

I have reread this before closing this letter, and I think it sounds very silly, but also, my darling Amanda, I am so very happy also, so maybe this thought will help you a little from your slightly foolish aunt.  We will be a little late visiting, owing to Developments of my own, but we will find out where your Battalion is on our way home.  (Everything is quite alright, but we are finding that this makes as excellent an excuse for a serendipitous holiday as a ball in the shoulder.)

Love,

Hester

 

_From Major Neil Kendall to Sir Gareth Ludlow, Saxe-Grünwald, 25 September 1814:_

Sir,

I beg a boon of you, and crave advice besides.

I understand that you and Lady Hester are residing in the German states for a short while – might I beg of you the favour of taking my wife home to England with you when you return, and keeping her there? 

My regiment will shortly be departing to the American conflict, to Louisiana, which I must beseech you to keep in confidence.  The climate there is unchancy to white women, and the risk of yellow fever too high, and regrettably I am aware that if I send her home to England I might find her stowing away on board a ship or something equally ridiculous and dangerous, because in this, she claims she will not mind me.

She almost drowned, Sir, when we evacuated over the Nive.  She almost drowned, and when I was able to extricate myself from staff duties to come to her aid, I found her as cool as you please ordering my batman to lay out bedding to dry, as blissfully unaware of the danger as any of the kittens she has been toting around.  I do not want my young wife’s death on my conscience, and I cannot make her understand.  You have her respect, Sir, which you gained through sore trials, and also mine; I crave your wisdom on this matter.

Respectfully,

Major Neil Kendall, Light Infantry, 43rd Regiment

 

_From Sir Gareth Ludlow to Major Neil Kendall, 43 rd Regiment, Toulouse, 8 October 1814:_

My Dear Neil,

You and your wife will always be welcome guests in my household, but I beg you to think it over.  I think that if you had a promising young subaltern in your regiment, whose only real flaw was an excess of excitability, you would think yourself dreadfully cowhanded to send such a one back to barracks in disgrace.  In truth, Neil, I think you would treat a courageous, intelligent, and pragmatic officer in your regiment, who also had that rare virtue of remaining calm under fire, as a gift to your command and engage in considerable thought as to how you might bring such a one on.  I even venture to suggest that the General Summercourt may have provided some such patronage to _you._

We men have such dreadful expectations of our womenfolk.  We lock them up in gilded cages, encourage them to think on nothing but clothes and feathers and hat ribbons, and perhaps some park outings; or if we are really generous we might let them manage their own households and raise their own children, but only if all understand that they will need paid help to do so.  We require the fair sex to be incompetent and idle, and then dismiss their rages as foolishness and hysteria; we call them _silly_ , when we ourselves would chafe against the restrictions on their lives as a beast of burden that smashes itself to pieces rather than accept the plough.  Where then is their outlet for passion?  For excellence, for creative satisfaction, for the life of the mind?  Or even the physical satisfaction of knowing one has done _real work_.  I think if we merely stand aside and let our women get on with things, they regulate themselves and their own jobs with far more competence than a duenna-ed schoolroom miss could ever dream, and England is the better for it.

A particularly pertinent example would be the events of the last few months.  I departed hot-foot from London, eager to smash and lay about me at the blackguards who had had the effrontery to kidnap my wife… and do you know, by the time I reached her, my lady had calmly settled all matters to her liking and wanted but some heavy lifting from myself and Hildebrand to make all right.  It is to my cost that I did not recognise this truth when I was much younger; one dear to me might yet live if I had not attempted to suffocate her in cotton wool until she drove herself to heights of supreme recklessness.  I must bear my own responsibility for a foolhardy act, though my own hands did not touch the reins.

Lady Hester and I will be going home via Vienna, as it transpires.  One of the holiday makers we have encountered in Saxe- Grünwald is a member of the Foreign Office and he has asked me to take on a temporary diplomatic rôle for his service during a congress which is shortly to be held there.  Harrington is a deep old file, and I suspect that what he really wants is for my beloved Hester to blink in mild-mannered surprise at people until they agree to whatever course of action she considers most suitable.  My wife, I am proud to say, has grown into her sense of power and also of serenity, and for my own small part in the emergence of her true self I can only say that I am the grateful recipient of all my wife’s beneficence.

I think you will find also, that if you let your Amanda truly _fly_ ; if you give her work to do, real work, and teach her how to do it _well_ , and then step back and allow her to get her teeth into it: ask her to run the hospital for your regiment say, or organise its logistical work.  Well then, Neil my boy, I think you will have the sweetest running regiment in His Majesty’s Service and the second happiest marriage in all of Christendom.

With regards and good wishes,

Your obedient servant,

Sir Gareth Ludlow

 

 

**The London Gazette**

**EXTRAORDINARY.**

_Published by Authority._

THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1815.

_Downing-Street, June 22, 1815._

**M** ajor the Honourable H. Percy arrived late last night with a dispatch from Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K. G. to Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the War Department, of which the following is a copy:

My Lord,                                                                               _Waterloo, June 19, 1815._

BUONAPARTE having collected the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th corps of the French army and the Imperial Guards, and nearly all the cavalry on the Sambre, and between that river and the Meuse, between the 10th and 14th of the month, advanced on the 15th and attacked the Prussian posts at Thuin and Lobéz, on the Sambre, at daylight in the morning.

I did not hear of these events till the evening of the 15th, and I immediately ordered the troops to prepare to march….

I was likewise much indebted to the assistance of Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Fitzroy Somerset and Major Neil Kendall, who were severely wounded, and of the officers composing my personal staff, who have suffered severely in this action….

I send, with this dispatch, two eagles, taken by the troops in this action, which Major Percy will have the honour of laying at the feet of His Royal Highness.

I beg leave to recommend him to your Lorship’s protection.

I have the honour, &c.

(Signed)         WELLINGTON.

 

_From Mrs Neil Kendall to Lady Hester Ludlow, London, 10 August 1815:_

Dear Aunt Hester,

By now, if your travels have gone to plan, you and Uncle Gary and little Charlotte will have returned home to London, and you will have seen the eagles and read Wellington’s account of the battle.  Yes, Neil was very sorely wounded, but he is going to be quite all right.  He had a dreadful fever for a few days, and for a little while the doctors despaired of his leg, but careful nursing has seen him through and he will be left with but a limp we think.

So much has happened since we left you in Vienna.  When we blew in with the Duke’s Staff, Brussels was in this incredible state of giddy gaiety: I have been looking quite the guy in my sensible pelisse and workaday colours, and I haven’t minded in the least.  I have almost wept at the amount of lint I’ve scraped and the supplies I’ve charmed from the Quarter Masters, but I’ve been glad of every bit of bandage and cup of broth I’ve been able to lay my hands on.  After battle was joined and it became too late to evacuate, I _can_ comment on the number of very fine ladies who came to me for advice – I have very nobly refrained from laughing at the very grand and condescending ones until after they left the room, and the sensible ones I have recruited into the hospital.

Now that Neil is stronger I have been able to spend more time in the enlisted ward.  It may seem proud of me to say so, but I really feel that it helps the men to have us women helping them.  It is not just little services like providing a cold compress, or helping an injured man bathe, or writing a letter home: I think they see in us a little bit of their own sweethearts, and they feel calmer I think, there is something in their eyes that has a little bit of peace when we are walking the wards.  The orderlies are angry with me because I insist that they bathe every day, when they are so dreadfully exhausted; and the women in other regiments are angry with me because I am hogging the washerwomen, but I do feel that the work we are doing to keep things clean helps the men also – it is a very great weight to be in pain for so long, and that sense of being able to be _clean_ and properly rested helps in its own way.  And Doctor Parkes says he is seeing much less malaise from the _miasma_ of an army hospital than he normally finds.  His Grace, the Duke of Wellington, came to visit and talked with Neil for nearly half an hour about Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and then he let me show him around the ward and told me it was the sweetest hospital in the Seventh Coalition.  So there, if anyone would know, it is old Douro.

As we both well know, the best cure for a shot is to rest in an apple orchard on a very sunny day surrounded by loved ones, so in a couple of days when Neil is stronger we will be removing to a little monastery near us, close enough that I may still help at the Hospital when Neil does not need me close to. The Abbot there has been very grateful for our army’s saving his beloved brandy store from the depredations of the French, and has presented our Staff with a number of barrels.  I enclose a bottle to you and Sir Gareth, with my love.

Love,

Your Amanda

 

_Extract from The Times, 5 April 1817:_

COURT PAPERS

… PRESENTED to Queen Charlotte at her recent Drawing-Room, by Mrs Wetherby, were The Right Honourable The Lady Ludlow, wife of The Right Honourable The Lord Ludlow newly appointed Minister to Washington, and Lady Kendall, wife of Colonel Sir Neil Kendall, Bt. The Queen gave her hands to be kissed by the Ladies Ludlow and Kendall and spoke to them most kindly for a full five minutes.  Also presented were…

**Author's Note:**

> Neil is in the Light Bob: 43rd Regiment, which handily gives me a timeline on what he and Amanda were up to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43rd_(Monmouthshire)_Regiment_of_Foot#Light_Infantry
> 
> The Congress of Vienna – This was one of those huge historical events that I’d frankly never heard of until I did the research for this story. It was an Enormous meeting of all the ambassadors of the European states from November 1814 until June 1815, where they basically divvied up Europe amongst themselves in a lot of side treaties with the intent that no one power would ever be able to dominate as Napoleonic France had just done. There were a lot of balls and parties… I feel that Sir Gareth, who is canonically good at getting on with people, and also has discovered a general delight in and talent for telling bouncers, would fit right in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna 
> 
> The London Gazette - it turns out that you can, like, just look up the edition of the newspaper where Wellington reported on the Battle of Waterloo. It's right there... https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/17028/page/1 I have slotted Neil into the real account and got him to share some glory with Lt Col Somerset who was of the same regiment (the 43rd weren’t back from the Battle of New Orleans in time for Waterloo, but some of its officers were serving on the Duke of Wellington’s personal staff. Somerset became both a baron and a full Field Marshal in his own right, so I think Neil is in good company.)
> 
> "and the women in other regiments are angry with me because I am hogging the washerwomen" - Amanda is very much ahead of her time - the great achievement of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War 40 years later was improving the sanitation of army hospitals and barracks which made the mortality rate plummet. But her instincts with Sir Gareth to send away a dirty midwife were correct, so I'm calling this an extension of a good idea. The germ theory of disease was being investigated by a few researchers at the time but was very unpopular: the general opinion was that ill health was caused by a _miasma_ , the vapours arising from a place, often associated with strong smells.
> 
> Glomming off an actual account of a presentation to the Queen at one of her Drawing-Rooms was rather trickier and I ended up fudging it, but here is some background info: http://historicalhussies.blogspot.co.nz/2009/06/being-presented-to-queen.html I threw in some elevations in rank for Neil and Sir Gareth, because I felt like it – they’re both competent men with super-competent wives, obviously they’ll go far. Lady Hester would almost certainly have been presented at her original coming out, but my source said that diplomat's wives would be represented. In the first draft of this story, I casually made Sir Gareth an Ambassador, because why not, then fortuitously picked up a really excellent book about diplomatic wives and daughters, _Daughters of Britannia_ by Katie Hickman, which says that before WWII ambassadors were a very rare and exalted thing (never more than eight) and Ministers of Legations, Residents, and Consuls were much more common. So Sir Gareth can put in an honest day's work and work his way up the ladder. [Hickman has just gotten to the tumultuous career of Emma Hamilton. Oh Glory.]


End file.
